Submitted by the OAS Trade Unit to the FTAA Working Group on Competition Policies

Argentina

The National Commission for the Defense of Competition is created under the Secretariat of State for Commerce and International Economic Negotiations. (Artículo 6).

Bolivia

1. Common courts in the case of constitutional provisions and foreign investment provisions.

2. Office of the General Superintendent of the Sectoral Regulation System in the case of the Sectoral Regulation System law.

Brazil

The implementing agencies of Law No. 8,884/94 are:

1. CADE, a collegial body with an adjudicative function and jurisdiction throughout the national territory, established by Law 4,237 of September 10, 1962, and which became an autonomous federal government agency linked to the Ministry of Justice, by force of the above-mentioned law (Law No. 8.884/94).

2. The Secretariat for Economic Law (SDE), an organ for the preparation, investigation, and oversight, a decentralized body of the Ministry of Justice, established by Law 8,158 of January 8, 1991, and the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring (SEAE) of the Ministry of Treasury.

3. As regards the attributes of the organs that make up the system for the defense of competition, administrative proceedings begin in the SDE/MJ, which during the investigative phase receives technical support from the SEAE/MF. They are only valid on a definitive basis once the conclusions of the SDE/MJ are confirmed by the CADE.

Canada

There are various institutions in the enforcement of Canadian competition law. These include:
(I) The Director of Investigation and Research who directs the Competition Bureau;
(ii) The Minister of Industry;
(iii) The Attorney General of Canada;
(iv) The Courts;
(v) The Competition Tribunal.

Colombia

The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce is a technical agency attached to the Ministry of Economic Development, with administrative, financial, and budgetary autonomy. As the supervisory and regulatory agency, it has the function of monitoring compliance with the provisions governing restrictive trade practices contained in Law 155/59 and the rules of Decree 2153 of 1992. This decree established the Office for Promotion of Competition, which supervises and controls the actions of economic agents that tend to restrict competition.

The Office for Promotion of Competition has two important branches: the Office for Consumer Protection and the Office for Industrial Property.

Costa Rica

The law creates the Commission for Promotion of Competition as the maximum antitrust authority. It is attached to the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Commerce. This commission shall on its own initiative or upon complaint investigate and, when appropriate, penalize, any practices that result in obstacles to free competition and unnecessarily impede the flow of the market. (Article 18).

Chile

For the prevention, investigation, correction and repression of attempts to the free competition or abuses in which may incurr whoever occupying a monopolistic situation, even though those would not be constituent of offense, there will exist the following Organizations and Services: a) The Regional Preventive Commissions; b) The Central Preventive Commission; c) The Resolutory Commission; d) Economic National Prosecutor's Office. All references made by lawful or regulatory rules to Provincial Preventive Commissions, Prosecutor=s Office for Defense of Free-Competition and to Prosecutor, it shall be understood as made to Regional Preventive Commissions, Economic National Prosecutor=s Office and to the National Prosecutor, respectively. (Article 6).

Dominican Republic

The provisions of the Criminal Code are applied in the courts.

Law No. 13 is applied by the Price Control Office of the Department of Industry and Commerce, the Department of Labor, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Guatemala

Cases of conduct prohibited by the Commercial Code are judged by the civil courts, upon application ex parte. Cases of monopolistic practices are the responsibility of the criminal courts, in which case the Public Prosecutor's office must initiate the action, pursuant to national legislative provisions.

Jamaica

The legislation establishes an agency known as the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) that is empowered to enforce the provisions of the Act. (Section 4).

Mexico

The Federal Competition Commission is an autonomous administrative body of the Ministry. It shall act as a technicaly and operationally independent agency charged with the prevention, investigation and combatting of monopolies, anticompetitive practices and concentrations under the terms of this Act, and shall enjoy independence in making its determinations. (Article 23).

Panama

A special entity known as the Free Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission is hereby created, hereinafter referred to as "the Commission," as a public decentralized entity of the State, with its own legal capacity, autonomy in its internal procedures, independence in the exercise of its functions, and attached to the Ministry of Trade and Industries. The Commission shall be subject to inspection by the Office of the Controller General of the Republic, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. (Article 101).

Peru

The Commission on Free Competition is an agency with technical and administrative autonomy, responsible for ensuring compliance with the law against practices that are monopolistic, or designed to control or restrict free competition. (Article 7).

The Commission on Free Competition has a Technical Secretariat that serves as a liaison with the administrative structure of INDECOPI. (Article 44 of the Law on Organization and Functions of INDECOPI).

The antitrust chamber of the Court for the Defense of Competition of INDECOPI has the second and final administrative jurisdiction for cases involving violations of Decree 701.

United States

The two federal agencies responsible for enforcing the antitrust laws are the Department of Justice (DOJ), through its Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent agency established in 1914.

The FTC is composed of five Commissioners appointed for seven year terms by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate; the FTC is not part of the Executive Branch. A clearance procedure between the two agencies ensures that the same parties or conduct are not subject to investigation by both agencies at the same time.

The antitrust laws are enforced principally through proceedings brought in the federal courts, either by the Department of Justice, by private parties, or by attorneys general of the various states. The FTC conducts its own internal administrative proceedings to adjudicate violations of the antitrust laws; but in those cases as well, the FTC must go before the courts to obtain preliminary injunctive relief or to enforce violations of its remedial orders. The courts thus have a major role in the enforcement and interpretation of the U.S. antitrust laws, although the vast majority of enforcement actions brought by the DOJ and FTC are settled prior to contested proceedings in the courts.

The state governments also play an important role in antitrust enforcement: each of the fifty states may sue to enforce federal antitrust laws when an antitrust violation causes injury to the state itself or to its citizens. In addition, 49 states have their own antitrust laws, which may be enforced through suits brought by states or private parties in the state courts.

Venezuela